Photo Op: The A-Rod Cupcake

July 13, 2009

Back in May, I was so busy baking for Brooklyn Kitchen’s Cupcake Cookoff that I forgot to take a decent pictures of my finished cupcakes. I recently made another batch of A-Rod cupcakes for my friends at Askinosie Chocolate when they were in town for The Fancy Food Show and finally got some decent pictures. If you weren’t previously convinced to try this recipe, will these pictures help?

Ooh baby, check out that close-up:

The A-Rod, a “fluffernutter cupcake on steroids” is a chocolate cupcake filled with marshmallow fluff, topped with milk chocolate ganache, a peanut butter cookie and peanut butter ganache. You can get the recipe here.

Now here’s the part where you’re going to think I’m crazy (if you don’t already). The day I made these, the Askinosie team, Taste Tester and I went out for a very filling dinner at the famous Katz’s Deli. Somehow despite being very full and enjoying some of the above homemade cupcakes, we also managed to visit four - yes FOUR - other dessert places in the same night. Crazy? Maybe. Crazy delicious? Definitely!

At some point we counted and if memory serves me correctly, we ate a total of 18 cupcakes and 3 desserts between the 6 of us. The stars of this gluttonous evening were the pumpkin cupcake with cream cheese frosting at Sugar Sweet Sunshine, the triple chocolate cupcake at Chikalicious Dessert Club, and everything at The Dessert Truck. We also stopped in Max Brenner’s to nibble some samples while taking a peek at their collection of chocolates and beautiful package design.

Of all the stops, The Dessert Truck was easily the best. The Milk Chocolate Mousse w/peanut butter center and caramelized popcorn, Warm Molten Dark Chocolate Cake w/olive oil ganache, hazelnuts, sea salt and vanilla ice cream, and Goat Cheese Cake w/rosemary caramel and fresh blackberries were all absolutely phenomenal.

I’ll post pics and write more on those NYC treats another day. For now, enjoy the A-Rod!